If story was as good as Sword Snow Stride this would be a 9.5 or 10.

I like all the characters and the seriousness of the story. People actually die and the main leads are not constantly crying about having to kill someone.

The fighting is much better than Sword Snow Stride. And I love the lore of the swords.

But one thing that's missing is nobody seems to level up. Everyone starts about the same and although the main lead learns one sword skill, there's not much leveling up at all. I miss the HK 80s shows where the main leads or even the evil leads learn new skills along the way. One of my favorites is 天蠶變

So far, a lot of the characters are kind of forgettable. I like the main lead but not sure what the main female lead is about. She's sort of in the background. She's quite beautiful and gorgeous. Male lead is good. But I am on episode 21 and still trying to figure out what the heck they are doing. I am kind of worried it'll end up like Luoyang where nothing is resolved at the end and it's a stupid ending. That was one of the most disappointing shows for me last year. Luoyang started out great and just ended up crap last several episodes.

So far after 21 episodes, I think it's 8/10. I hope it gets better. It's still good but a bit incoherent.